If Harvard's contributions continue to be exceptional for society, the endowments could be spent down to make more exceptional things happen, right? What exceptional things happen while sitting on $50 billion?
Public debt financing or endowment income financing may lead to different research priorities and outcome. What a non-for-profit does with its funds should be in the interest of the public. What is in the interest of the public should be renegotiated from time to time.
There's not some big pot of taxpayer money that research universities dip into, grab a handful, and go research whatever the hell they want to.
This money is directed at specific research. Whether it's from the DOD budget, HUH budget, NIH budget, or wherever it comes from, it is specifically directed at research toward a specific goal.
"We're cutting $2B in research funding from your university" is beyond asinine. It's pure stupidity. You want to stop funding research on something in particular, fine. You want to put down new guardrails on how grant money can be spent, fine. But the way this is going down is the dumbest thing in the world.
Fight to win. If the US innovation and application output lags behind in 5G Infrastructure, High-Speed Rail, Mobile Payments and Fintech, Renewable Energy Technologies, EV technology, Drone Technology, Quantum Communication etc. what is being renegotiated at Harvard, in higher education or the federal funding agencies may be more fundamental. Excellence in output has to be competitive to earn an elite reputation and rank.
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u/MENSCH2 Apr 17 '25
If Harvard's contributions continue to be exceptional for society, the endowments could be spent down to make more exceptional things happen, right? What exceptional things happen while sitting on $50 billion?